Seeing what we want to see
I work in a building that’s basically a frame covered with tinted windows. The funny thing about that is that there’s a walkway around the entire building. People go outside to talk on their cell phones, and sometimes they stroll around the building or stand right next to it to do so.
Occasionally someone will stand outside, right in front of my desk, not realizing that I can hear every word they’re saying quite clearly. After all, they’re only about 2 feet from me, and the glass is by no means soundproof. I’m always tempted to bang on the glass or to say “I can hear you”, but luckily it doesn’t happen too often or for very long.
The point is, they see their reflection in the tinted glass and equate that with privacy, when the reality is quite different. If they gave it even a smidgen of thought, they’d realize that.
But they don’t think about it.
They see what they want to see, and that’s it.
I think it can be tempting to do that in personal finance too. I know that I used to be guilty of it.
“Oh, we’re doing really well,” I’d think. “We have a house, and a car, and we’re going to school and will get good jobs.”
I didn’t think about the current reality, which would have gone more like this:
“Good grief, we have a house payment and a car, but no jobs. And we’re going to school using a couple of student loans that could take forever to pay off. What was I thinking?”
Really thinking about the reality of the situation, and seeing how it would come out in a worse-case scenario can help to avoid situations you’d never have deliberately chosen to get into otherwise.
Look beyond the tinted glass and evaluate things objectively. Recognize the bias toward seeing only what we want to see.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Not that it has anything to do with the financial aspect of your post, but I work with a guy who closes his door before he gets on his speakerphone. The only problem: his office walls don’t reach the ceiling. We can hear every word of his “confidential” conversation. He also talks real loud. We’ve tried to tell him, but to no avail. He refuses to recognize his lack of privacy.
June 13th, 2009 at 1:30 am
That’s funny. My husband and I went to a restaraunt. As we were walking towards the door, he stopped at the huge tinted window in the front and started patting his hair and checking his nose for boogers. I said “Honey, there’s people eating on the other side of that glass!”